Director Justin Lin known for his work on the Fast and Furious franchise, revealed the reason behind 2012’s The Bourne Legacy never getting a sequel, despite the potential film having been in development.
Lin discussed the process of being hired by Universal Studios in order to direct the sequel alongside Andrew Baldwin as screenwriter. Lin confirmed that Bourne Legacy star Jeremy Renner was on board for the sequel and the two widely worked on discussions surrounding Renner’s character Aaron Cross, before learning that Matt Damon had decided to return to his role as Jason Bourne in the film that would eventually be released in 2016.
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Speaking to Happy Confused Sad podcast, Lin stated, “It was after I left for Fast 6 and Donna Langley (of Universal Studios) reached out and said, ‘What do you think about Bourne and I was like, ‘Oh man!’ and like, Renner’s amazing. And to this day, I still kinda miss what we were working on. I think Matt was done at that point. In the middle of doing that, Matt and Paul Greengrass decided to come back. I think back fondly on it, and there’s actually some stuff in there that I hope to be able to bring to life in other projects because it was such a great time working with Andrew Baldwin on the script and Jeremy, just hanging out and talking about his character was great.”
Did The Bourne Legacy Reboot of The Bourne Franchise?
The Bourne Legacy was directed by Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter of the first three films. Its release received mixed reviews and moderate box office returns. Matt Damon opted out of reprising his role in the franchise due to the absence of director Paul Greengrass. The film, while not a reboot or a soft reboot of the original Bourne trilogy, served as a spinoff, continuing the story concurrently with The Bourne Ultimatum from 2007. The story followed Aaron Cross, a participant in the black ops program Operation Outcome, where subjects undergo genetic enhancements. Cross must evade capture due to the fallout of Jason Borne publicly exposing the CIA operations of Operation Treadstone and its successor, Operation Blackbriar.
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In an interview producer Frank Marshall indicated a slim chance of Renner returning for another Bourne movie, stating to /Film, “Probably not. I don’t know… That story is still out there as well but it’s not… we’re not talking about it.” Marshall then suggested the likelihood of another Damon-led Bourne movie, citing the success of Jason Bourne at the box office.
Source: Screen Rant
